{"title":"Indian Vernacular History-writing and Its Ideological Engagement","authors":"Piotr Borek","doi":"10.12797/cis.22.2020.01.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/cis.22.2020.01.01","url":null,"abstract":"Indian Vernacular History-writing and Its Ideological Engagement: A Contemporary Account on Shivaji’s Visit to Agra (1666) in Brajbhāṣā Verse \u0000The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb’s court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical and popular accounts. A contemporary relation of this event is to be found in vernacular poetry, which according to the Western understanding of traditional history should not be considered factually reliable. Academic research of at least the last two decades has seen many attempts to oppose this view and to theorize Indian vernacular literatures as legitimate ways of recording the past. This article offers an analysis of a few 17th-century Braj stanzas by Bhushan against the background of modern professional historical accounts, all of them devoted to the 1666 event, in order to demonstrate intersection points between two separately molded ways of intentional history-writing and to support the credibility of recording the past by the early modern poet.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49505516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lords of the Lord: Crossing Boundaries between Human and Divine in Tamil Vaiṣṇava Bhakti Poetry","authors":"J. Woźniak","doi":"10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.10","url":null,"abstract":"In the Tamil Bhakti tradition the devotees are generally referred to as ‘servants/slaves [of God],’ and this slave attitude is one of the main characteristics of their relation with God, their Lord. However, in the works of the āḻvārs, Tamil Vaiṣṇava poet-saints, one can find a few examples of the rather unusual situation in which devotees are presented not as slaves of God but actually as His Lords. Thus, exercising their authority over God, who is seemingly dependent on human actions, can be understood as a peculiar way of crossing traditionally recognized boundaries that exist between these two different realms (soul vs. God/human vs. divine). All these acts are supposed to be primarily the expressions of human love and the irresistible need to unite with the Lord, which eventually results in taking control over Him.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46326033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Boundary between \"Yogakkhema\" in the \"Suttapiṭaka\" and \"Yogakṣema\" in the \"Upaniṣads\" and \"Bhagavadgītā\"","authors":"Chiara Neri, T. Pontillo","doi":"10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.05","url":null,"abstract":"The combination of the stems yoga- and khema-/kṣema- occurs in phrases or compounds in both ancient and in middle Indo-Aryan sources but what is intriguing is that such a combination is generally interpreted as coordinating in the former occurrences and as subordinating in the latter ones. In particular, yogakkhema- within the Buddhist Theravāda Canon and its commentarial literature is regularly analysed as a tatpuruṣa and often translated as ‘freedom from bondage or safety’.We recently presented a part of the Vedic and Pali documentation collected in the context of more broadly shared research on this subject during the 18th Conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (Section: “Buddhism and Its relation to other religions”) held at the University of Toronto on August 20th–25th, 2017, now published as Pontillo and Neri 2019. The case of yogakṣema/yogakkhema in Vedic and Suttapiṭaka sources. In response to Norman. In: Journal of Indian Philosophy 47(3): 527–563. Here, we shall take a further step in the above-mentioned comparison by concentrating on the occurrences of the compound yogakṣema/yogakkhema as found in the upaniṣads and in the Bhagavadgītā and in some comparable Suttapiṭaka passages with the aim of understanding what might have been the boundary that this word historically crossed in the framework of an assumed dialogue between different traditions.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44576746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A (Thin) Boundary Not to Be Crossed, or \"Lakṣmaṇ-rekhā\"","authors":"D. Stasik","doi":"10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.08","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā that originates in the later Rāmāyaṇa tradition and for centuries has functioned as a metaphorical expression denoting a strict (moral) boundary that should not be crossed, as its transgression inevitably exposes one to danger. It has featured prominently in Indian public discourse on female chastity and is also very much present in different socio-cultural and political contexts, often vocalised in literature, works of art, etc. In the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā, one of the most basic and at the same time most important functions performed in culture by symbolic boundaries is manifested—the function of delineating the known, familiar, safe and permissible from the unknown, unfamiliar, dangerous, impermissible. Significantly, these boundaries have inherent moral weight and help individuals as well as whole societies to structure and regulate the universe they live in, on the micro- and macro-scale.In this paper, first I discuss textual evidence that can be found in wellknown Hindi Rāmāyaṇas such as the Rāmcaritmānas, the Rāmcandrikā and Rādheśyām Rāmāyaṇ, as well as in the Sūrsāgar. This analysis of literary material is meant to contextualise various levels of explicit and implicit meanings of the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā that emerge from traditional sources in Hindi. In the second part of this article, I offer a survey of relevant Hindi dictionary entries and then focus on modern non-literary (and not only Hindi) usages of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā. Finally, I place the previously examined literary and linguistic material in the context of the findings of contemporary social scientists on the concept of symbolic boundaries (Epstein 1992). It is hoped that this study that gives emphasis to structuring and regulating (but not only) aspect of boundaries can contribute to our understanding of how broadly understood safety and values are negotiated in contemporary Indian society by way of drawing (ethical) boundaries and what happens if they are compromised.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48317378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Veṅkaṭanātha’s Impact on Śrīvaiṣṇavism","authors":"Elisa Freschi","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.05","url":null,"abstract":"This article maintains that the resemantization of Hayagrīva from a minor pan-Indian deity to a major local deity can be traced to Veṅkaṭanātha (traditional dates 1269–1370), who chose Hayagrīva because of his connection with learning and the Vedas. As a consequence of this intentional resemantization, in Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta following Veṅkaṭanātha, Hayagrīva has acquired distinct and standardized traits that are clearly recognizable in all reuses of his image and trope. To conclude, the article shows how Hayagrīva took on a particularly sectarian flavor as an identifying mark of the sub- school of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, which considers Veṅkaṭanātha its founder.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44657752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Missionaries in the Race for Putting the Veda to Print","authors":"Cezary Galewicz","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.06","url":null,"abstract":"The early 1800s saw several competing projects of opening the hitherto guarded textuality of the Veda to a wider public, both in Europe and in India. Apart from those animated by the spirit of imperial control or allegedly pure academic interest, others situated themselves within broader goals of the new wave of missionary work in India. Among the Protestant missionaries to take active part in projects of that sort, the exceptional figure of Rev. John Stevenson of the Church of Scotland stands conspicuously unparalleled. The paper intends to follow the circumstances of the publishing and to offer an idea about the complex ideology that might have accompanied Stevenson’s pioneering work in editing and translating of the Veda, especially his work titled The Threefold Science that appeared in 1833 in Bombay.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43086285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Acts of Selfhood—A Review of Anshu Malhotra and Siobhan Lambert- Hurley (eds.). Speaking of the Self: Gender, Performance and Autobiography in South Asia. x +312 pp. New Delhi: Zubaan. 2017, isbn 978-93-85932-38-0. By Udaya Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru Univers","authors":"Udaya Kumar","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.11","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49345681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}